that next paycheck may be smaller is not going over well among the troops.ourpentagoncorrespondentbarbara starr has the details. she's working the story. barbara, what's going on? >> wolf, in this town, there's nothing that causes more anxiety in budget politics than the concept of cutting the pay for the troops. but that is exactly what is on the table if congress and the president cannot reach an agreement on a spending plan. the troops usually are happy to see defense secretary leon panetta, smiles and handshakes all around. but days before he leaves office, panetta has bad news. he's proposing less money in their paycheck next year. panetta, a savvy washington operative in budget politics, is leaving it to congress to figure out how not to cut pay and keep thousands of defense employees on the job. >> we will furlough as many as 800,000 d.o.d. civilians around the country for up to 22 days. they could face a 20% cut in their salary. you don't think that's going to impact on our economy? >> but the recommendation to slow the military pay raise will put troops in the middle of t

's oil flows. lawmakers have until march the 1st to cut $500 billion fromthepentagon's budgetover the next decade. if they don't automatic cuts kick. in with that dangling overhead the military has had its hands tied they tell us. jennifer pentagon -- griffin is at the pentagon tonight. i know they want more money. >> that's right. it is significant in terms of the message that it sends to iran right now in a very tense time in the middle east. but it is and it is the first concrete sign that the budget uncertainty is going to have a real impact on national security. at a time when tensions are are high with iran over its nuclear program and negotiations might be coming soon, the u.s. had had a policy of having two aircraft carriers over the golf for the past two years. the uss eisenhower will deploy later this month. but it will go alone we're told to replace the uss. according to george little said facing budget uncertainty continuing budget resolution and across the board sequestration cuts made this request to the secretary and he approved. secretary of defense approved to rev

? >> atthepentagon. >>this is the first time hearing of this. when did this happen? did they make this decision on the cruise ship? >> no. no, they didn't. it actually happened in washington. >> really? that's fascinating. >> which is its own permanent port-a-potty. >> okay. mika, for those of us that were just sitting there looking at a cruise ship for 24 hours instead of following the real news, why don't you catch us up with what actually happened yesterday in the news. >> republicans blocked a vote yesterday that would have ended the debate and allowed for a final decision one way or another. democrats fell just shy of the votes needed to advance the process. something president obama chalked up to partisan politics. >> there's nothing in the constitution that says that somebody should get 60 votes. there are only a handful of instances in which there's been any kind of filibuster of anybody for a cabinet position in our history. and what seems to be happening -- and this has been growing over time -- is the republican minority in the senate seem to think that the rule now is that you have

's following all these developments for us this morning fromthepentagon. barbara,good morning. >> reporter: good morning, soledad. all about spice and drones this morning, isn't it? well, this video has not yet been confirmed as the genuine article by the administration, the pentagon or the cia but it's getting a lot of attention. if you look at it, it's perhaps not so compelling itself, but there's plenty to try and figure out. let's get to that in a minute. but i want you first to listen to -- we translated some of the voice on the tape describing what you're looking at. have a listen. >> translator: this air craft has had many flights in countries around iran. in operations that have taken place in pakistan, this aircraft has provided guidance. >> reporter: so a claim there of u.s. spying on iran and that's really what this is all about. if this is the genuine article, the key question for u.s. intelligence agencies will be what technology now is actually in iranian hands, what do they know and what are they planning to do with it. >> all right, then let's talk about the drone program u

're going to cut pretty significantly fromthepentagon's budget.your move, mr. president. >> he wants revenues to go up again and john boehner's response is, we just did that. >> that's the thing. we always heard, you guys raise taxes, cut defense spending and then we will come back with a compromise on spending cuts. but, no, we raise taxes, we come forward with pentagon cuts and the president comes back with, we want to tax more americans. let's raise taxes again. >> you wonder where this ends now then, right, because if the president's not going to go anywhere without more revenue, where does this take us? we have the plan in place that was supposed to do both of those things. we're at that point on friday and we will hit it and neither side is going to get to it. what's the end game here. >> how do you think this is goin going? >> it's going terribly. >> republicans always lose these budget battles. i get a sense for the first time the president is overplaying his hand. talking about fear and loathing, locusts ascending from the heavens, now talking about more tax cuts, your dog w

, those cuts would take 13% out ofthepentagon's budget.9% away from nondefense programs, and 11% out of unemployment insurance checks, senior administration officials are telling us that when those cuts begin causing pain across america, they believe republicans will cave under pressure from their constituents and agree to the increased revenue the president wants. just yesterday the president made his argument at a nuclear attack submarine plant in newport news, virginia. >> there are too many republicans in congress right now who refuse to compromise even an inch when it comes to closing tax loopholes and special interest tax breaks. that's what's holding things up right now. >> but republicans disagree and speaker of the house, john boehner, used some very colorful language to describe how unhelpful he thinks president obama's trip away from washington was so close to the deadline for sequestration. >> for 16 months the president has been traveling all over the country holding rallies instead of sitting down with senate leaders in order to try to forge an agreement over there in o

thepentagon. likedon't cut a single thing, but i'm going to go out, i'm going to keep talking about rich americans. i'm going to keep talking about corporations. i'm going to play to my base instead of talking -- telling middle-class americans they're going to have to make some sacrifices. along with the rich. it's that mika, it's a permanent campaign. and i guess if this is how he wants to run things, he's president of the united states, good luck over the next 3 1/2 years. >> i don't understand why loopholes are even an argument, first of all, why he has to go this far. why he has to keep talking about it. >> hold on a second. >> i know. >> we all agree that these loopholes need to be closed. >> well, let's do it. why is it so hard? >> i've been talking about supporting warren buffett's idea. >> why are we still talking about it? >> because the president only uses it to demagogue in a permanent campaign. he never talks about the other side of it. he always says oh, it's the rich. >> that would be loopholes. >> don't tax you, don't tax me, tax the rich guy behind the tree. >> steny hoye

as the secretary steps up the rhetoric about dire cuts atthepentagonifsequestration goes into effect march 1. >>> the man accused of trying to blow up the federal reserve in new york expected to plead guilty to terror charges. officials say he tried to blow up the van with 1,000 pounds of explosives outside the buildings, but the explosives were fake. he is charged with trying to use weapons of mass destruction and trying to thwart al qaeda. >> there are thousands of reasons why people are late to work. traffic? the most common culprit. but not all employees blame jammed roads. a new survey reveals some of the most memorable excuses like -- good ideas for you. my car wouldn't start because the breathalyzer showed i was intoxicated. my car was attacked by a bear. here's the photo of proof. are we going to see it? >>steve: we heard it. >>gretchen: last but not least, my angry wife froze my keys in a glass of water in the freezer. come on. out of those three, that is the most logical one. >>brian: really? i tell you what, i think there is a long line of misdeeds if she is going to that extent t

be appropriate. >>steve:thepentagonisreally -- you know, you detail very astutely in your piece, they have fallen down in helping these guys transition to a new job. when this guy left, somebody said you might be able to get a job driving a truck, a beer truck in milwaukee. that's the kind of work you should think of. financially, his family would be better off money-wise if he would have been killed in service. >> that actually came from another seal team six member i spoke with who is still in seal team six who is about to go in deployment. he said because the navy is very generous about -- the military is very generous about life insurance. he said figure over on -- he said if i go over on my next deployment and get killed i know my kids will go to school and my wife will be taken care of. but if i come back and leave before my 20, i'll have nothing. >>brian: there's a few things that come out. one, the guy came back, a lot of people in the white house are going to be writing books. one guy writes a book and he's making a lot of money but he's not about to keep it because he's being sue

during the testimony, it was interesting because panetta saidthepentagon, thec.i.a., and the department of state were all on board with sending the rebels in syria where there has been mass genocide because ofor us to send them arms. you know who said no? the white house. well, we don't know if it's going to work. we don't know which of the rebels to arm. ultimately we don't know if it will result in the ouster of assad. >> brian: the "washington post" lead editorial today says hillary clinton and david petraeus, running the c.i.a. identified the group that they believe would have been the preferrable group to take over through all the rebels, they weeded through and had a plan. and the president nixed it. the word is too political. they wanted to make it seem we're not on a war footing with the election a month away. >> gretchen: maybe the election playing a huge role. let's look at the fox news polls right now. recently conducted, how many people feel our country compared to five years ago? nearly half of those polled say america is weaker and less powerful to

the sequester in a hurry, then yes, it's a real problem because it doesn't letthepentagonbeginto plan and distribute, if you will, the cuts. but at the end of the day, whether it's defense spending, education spending, health spending, what always matters more than how much you spend is how you spend it. and so i'm not, at the end of the day, all that worried about how much we spend, whether it's on defense or anything else. you just want to have the time to make some intelligent cuts rather than have to make them literally in a matter of days which would probably mean that readiness more than anything else would be cut out of the defense department account. and that's probably the one thing you don't want cut out of it. >> sam stein, you're close and yet so far away over there at the jump seat. what are the odds that the sequester actually takes place? we know the president's proposed something to push them back a while. are we going to see these kind of cuts, the ones that were outlined in the sequester proposal? >> i think the odds are pretty high, to be honest. i don't think there

's not going to be any opportunity tocutpentagonspendingin any serious way if you don't go over the cliff. so there is some stuff in there that i as a democrat don't like. but i think everybody's going to put something in the pot in order to balance the deficit. we did a lousy job in january on the tax side and i hope that -- i think it's better to go over the cliff than do a lousy job -- >> how many people do you know on your side of the field who actually agree with you? >> very few. look they're politicians. they want to spend as much money as they possibly can and they don't want to pay for it. >> who agrees with you? >> oh, i don't know. i bet -- oh, god, joe agrees with me. >> you forgot. the other thing, howard, and i'm just alluding to it, there will be no return to the bush era tax rates on anyone under $400,000? >> right. >> okay. so take that amount of money, whatever that is per year. how much do you need -- how many loopholes do you need to close? what is the marginal rate have to be on people above 400 to replace that potential revenue? it's 100%, isn't it? >> but i don't --

is thatthepentagonsigneddeals before the end of the year worth about $5 billion to make sure that the money was flowing before the sequester. >> $400 billion for this one weapon program. >> that's a lot of dough. >> that is a lot of dough. the cover is "the once and future pope." rick stengel, thanks for being with us. >>> coming up next, the first pictures of olympian and double amputee sprinter oscar pistorius after he's accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend. this is a guy who was the hero of london, sort of the field-good story last summer. now he is in jail accused of murder. we're going to have the latest straight ahead on "morning joe." [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. [ clears his throat ] by earning a degree from capella she'more iuniversity, isn't she? you'll have the

hacked e hack inthepentagonacouple years. >> you have to figure the united states is doing that, as well. if you remember back in the last year, a book was revealing the that a virus that we developed that was responsible for essentially screwing up iran's nuclear program but they are after us. >> gretchen: brand-new video, 26-year-old cried and judge charged him with a premeditated murder of his model girlfriend. hundreds of miles away reeva steenkamp was laid to rest in an emotional ceremony. >> we're going to keep things close we remember about my sister and try to continue with the things that she tried to make a success. we'll misser. >> gretchen: meantime, oakley has suspended a contract with pistorius and nike says he has no plans of using him in future ad campaigns. >> drew peter so often will fight for a new trial. they already going to argue that the former lawyer did such a terrible job during thinks trial last year it led to a conviction. stenk will be next. he faces up to 60 years behind bars. >> engine room that crippled the carnival ship triumph and reveals that i

the president for lost funding in federal programs andthepentagonoverten years, should the sequestration take place. house speaker john boehner said, quote, today the president advanced an argument republicans have been making for a year. his sequester is the wrong way to cut spending. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell insisted "more than three months after the november election, president obama still prefers campaign events to common sense, bipartisan action." and joining us now for more on this from washington, the former chief economist of the international monetary fund and bloomberg view columnist, simon johnson. he's the co-author of "white house burning: our national debt and why it matters to you," now out in paperback. simon, good to see you this morning. >> nice to be with you. >> simon, if you could help us through this over the next week or so, it doesn't look like there's a path to avoiding the sequestration if you listen to the two sides. so how damaging would this be? because we've heard a couple different versions of it that would have immediate impacts, more than 75

to be furloughs atthepentagon, thepay increases for the troops will not be as large as he would like, and then the president today added on to them, said, look, this is going to affect seniors, food safety, the poor. so what they are setting themselves up for is really this argument they are set to have and i think we're going to hear from the state of the union, over these automatic spending cuts that are due to take effect. the president is saying, we cannot let this occur and he's ready to clearly have that fight with republicans on this. >> panetta leaving office with an extraordinary acknowledgement that the defense department, the cia, state department, all of them recommended to the president that the u.s. should start arming, directly arming syrian rebels but the president decided that was not necessarily a good idea. that's pretty extraordinary. >> it was extraordinary. he was asked about it at a congressional hearing. what is interesting to me is someone who covers washington, it's not that there is disagreement at certain points over policy between the secretary of defense

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